Biography of Sen. Ireti Kingibe, career achievements, net worth

In this post, News360 Nigeria chronicles the biography and career achievements of Sen. Ireti Kingibe.

Ireti Kingibe is a politician and civil engineer from Kano state, Nigeria.

In 2023, she was chosen by the Labour party to represent the Federal Capital Territory in the Nigerian Senate.

She is the younger sister of Ajoke Muhammad, the late Nigerian president Murtala Muhammad’s wife.

Profile overview

Name: Ireti Heebah Kingibe

Date of birth: 2nd June, 1954

Nationality: Nigerian

Political party: Labour Party

Spouse: Baba Gana Kingibe

Religion: Muslim

Education: University of Minnesota

Career: Politician, civil engineer

Birth

On June 2, 1954, Ireti was born in Kano State into a dynamic and multiethnic “Nigerian” family in Kano State.

Her father, Abdulkadri Lanval, is Fulani and Yoruba in origin, while her mother is descended from Asaba and Bonny.

Her older sister was Ajoke Mohammed, the ex-wife of Nigerian President Murtala Muhammed.

Education

Kingibe began her schooling at Emotan Prep School in 1966.

She continued her secondary education in 1970–1973 at Washington Irving High School and in 1966–1967 at Queen’s College Lagos.

She attended the University of Minnesota from 1975 to 1980 and graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1980.

Career

In 1978 and 1979, Kingibe began working with Bradley Precast Concrete Inc. as a quality control engineer.

She then proceeded with her engineering career, working as an engineer for the Minnesota Department of Transportation Design unit from 1979 to 1991.

She returned to Nigeria between 1981 and 1982 to complete her year-long mandatory service.

At the Nigerian Air Force base in Ikeja, Lagos, she was assigned as a project supervisor.

She began working for the New Nigeria Construction Company in Kaduna in 1982 as a planning engineer.

She left New Nigeria Construction Company in 1985 and became a consultant for Belsam Limited.

Following that, Ireti worked as a regional engineer for Lodigiani Nigeria Limited in Lagos, Nigeria, from 1990 to 1994.

She works as a senior partner at Kelnic Associates in Abuja at the moment.

Political career

Kingibe’s political career began when she was appointed as an advisor to the national chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), an organization that has since folded.

She ran for the Federal Capital Territory Senate seat in 2003, representing the All Nigeria People’s party.

She changed parties and became a member of the People’s Democratic Party in 2006.

But in 2014, she drifted away from the PDP because of its politics and joined the All Progressive Congress (APC).

She subsequently withdrew her candidacy for the APC senatorial seat in 2015.

Kingibe became a member of the Labour Party in 2022, and in the 2023 Nigerian elections, he successfully ran as their candidate for FCT senator.

Before the election, she pledged to contribute her base pay, if elected, to a special fund meant to address the dearth of infrastructure in the rural communities surrounding the nation’s capital.

On August 8, 2023, she was appointed chairman of the Senate’s committee on women’s affairs in the tenth Senate.

Controversy

On Tuesday, February 28, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared that Ireti Kingibe had won the Federal Capital Territory. The returning officer, Sanni Saka, made this announcement.

Other political party representatives refused to sign the result sheet because they did not believe the results were legitimate.

At a press conference, Kingibe, who had won a third term as senator against Philip Aduda, asserted that INEC lacked the authority to cancel an election she had won.

During the press conference, she claimed that opposition parties had bought off electoral officials in the elections for the president and national assembly.

She also said that there was an attempt to rig the election against her and that thugs had attacked and destroyed the result sheets at the Gwarinpa Collation Center.

Personal life

Sen. Ireti Kingibe is married to Amb. Babagana Kingibe, a former Federal Government secretary, and the two of them have three children together.

Net worth

Sen. Ireti Kingibe’s estimated net worth was not available at the time of this post; News360 Nigeria will provide an update when it becomes available.